58 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 12, 2019
LATIN POWER PLAYERS 2019
Raphy Pina
CEO
PINA RECORDS
Pina, 41, is committed to “opening doors for women
in the music industry” and successfully boosted
Dominican singer-songwriter Natti Natasha. In Feb-
ruary, the artist scored the biggest week for a Latin
album by a woman since 2017 when her debut LP,
ilumiNATTI, bowed at No. 3 on Top Latin Albums and
opened with 3.9 million streams. Pina has also part-
nered with Daddy Yankee for “the development of
new projects and global smashes,” he says, including
Daddy Yankee’s first show in 12 years at San Juan’s
Coliseo de Puerto Rico, coming up in December.
Luis Sánchez
CEO
AFINARTE MUSIC
Focusing on regional Mexican music with such
artists as Voz de Mando, Kanales, El Fantasma, El
Potro de Sinaloa and Inteligencia Norteña, Sánchez,
42, says revenue for his Los Angeles-based inde-
pendent label has grown over 70% in the past year.
Live opportunities for his acts are key. “The compa-
ny has transitioned from booking at small venues to
arenas,” he says. “We are now focusing on getting
bigger venues to get bigger audiences.”
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “People have too many options
for streaming services. With physical albums it was
easy, but now it’s hard to get the audience’s atten-
tion under one format. It’s a problem.”
Nir Seroussi
Executive vp
INTERSCOPE GEFFEN A&M
Seroussi, 43, joined Interscope Geffen A&M in Feb-
ruary after 15 years with Sony Music Latin, where,
as president of the U.S. Latin division and working in
tandem with The Orchard for distribution, he over-
saw the label’s steady market-share growth. Now the
industry veteran is breaking new ground leading In-
terscope’s first major foray into the Latin world. “No
other [major] U.S. label has done this: actually finance
a staff and allow you to build a roster,” says Seroussi.
“We’re planning to go from zero to 100.”
DEFINING CROSSOVER “The old definition was, ‘You’re
going to sing in English, and you become famous
in the U.S.’ Now you can sing in Spanish and place
10,000 people in the Tel Aviv [Israel] arena like
Ozuna. It’s not about language.”
MANAGEMENT
Fabio Acosta
Founder
VIBRAS LAB/AKELA FAMILY MUSIC
With Oasis, a collaboration with Puerto Rican rapper
Bad Bunny, Acosta’s management client J Balvin
(previously co-managed with Rebeca León and now
with Scooter Braun) debuted in June at No. 1 on Top
Latin Albums, opening with 39.3 million on-demand
audio streams, the biggest streaming debut for a
Latin album released in 2019. Acosta believes this
cements his artist’s rich legacy. “Urbano isn’t another
short-lived ‘Latin explosion,’ ” he says, “but instead a
realignment of the sound of global pop.”
BEST LATIN TREND “Now that Latin America is wired
for streaming and the world can accurately quan-
tify our true audience size, we are a permanent
force in worldwide music.”
Noah Assad
Co-founder/CEO
RIMAS ENTERTAINMENT
Assad, 29, launched Rimas Entertainment, which
has 14 artists and 40 songwriters, when the Puer-
to Rican native was only 24. It is now the label
home of Bad Bunny, and for more than a year,
Assad has been casting a wider net for talent.
“We’ve been developing a lot of acts around the
world,” he says, including artists “from Colombia,
Spain, Argentina [and] Chile.”
CHARITY HE SUPPORTS “The Good Bunny Founda-
tion, which [focuses on] music, arts and sports, and
helped a lot of people during Hurricane Maria.”
Frabian Eli Carrion
CEO
REAL HASTA LA MUERTA
Just hours before Anuel AA was released from
prison in July 2018 after serving time on gun pos-
session charges, Carrion dropped (via GLAD Em-
pire) the Latin trap star’s debut album, Real Hasta
la Muerte, “without any promo,” he says, and
watched it debut at No. 1 on Top Latin Albums.
The months since have brought calls to his artist
for “big collaborations,” says Carrion. “Yes” from
Fat Joe, Cardi B and Anuel AA arrived Sept. 6.
GREATEST LATIN MUSIC MILESTONE “ ‘Despacito.’ It’s
going to be in the history books for a long time.”
Sebastian Ducamp
Senior vp artist management and live events
GLOBAL TALENT SERVICES
For the artist management and booking arm of
Universal Music Latin Entertainment, Ducamp,
39, oversees a roster of nearly 100 UMLE and
GTS acts, including J Balvin, Luis Fonsi, Karol G
and Colombian singer-songwriter Sebastián
Yatra. GTS also serves as a booking agent,
promoter or co-promoter of concerts by its acts.
Ducamp reports that GTS helped Yatra achieve
sellouts in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico, with
nearly 200,000 tickets sold globally. “A label no
longer thinks just like a label,” he says. “We think
about the business of the artist.”
GREATEST LATIN MUSIC MILESTONE “J Balvin at
Coachella. It has opened doors for Latin music.”
Fernando Giaccardi
Vp Latin/senior artist manager
RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT
Giaccardi, 52, guided pop duo Jesse & Joy to a
new worldwide publishing deal with Kobalt Music
and renegotiated their recording contract with
Warner Music. “Ever since I started working with
them [in 2016], my mission was to fix the business
side of things for them,” he says. Marquee client
Enrique Iglesias has been busy, doing 41 shows
across 28 countries in the last 18 months for an
estimated attendance of 580,000 and gross of
$62 million, according to Giaccardi.
IMPACT OF THE POLITICAL CLIMATE “It has made
Latinos try to have their voice heard, and music is a
voice. So it’s an opportunity for Latin music.”
Walter Kolm
Founder/president
WK ENTERTAINMENT
Under Kolm, WK Entertainment continues to
increase its ability to serve its artists on an inter-
national level. That includes consolidating the
operations of a new Madrid office, which was key
to booking major European tours for clients CNCO
and Maluma. “A manager’s job is to monetize
success and translate streaming numbers into
ticket sales,” says Kolm, 51, whose client list also
includes Carlos Vives and Silvestre Dangond. In this
hemisphere, Wisin y Yandel (Wisin is a client) had
the biggest engagements of their career, grossing
$6.2 million across eight shows at the Coliseo de
Puerto Rico in San Juan. And Maluma, in his con-
tinuing quest for multiplatform superstardom, will
make his film debut alongside Jennifer Lopez and
Owen Wilson in Marry Me.
DEFINING CROSSOVER “I don’t think the word really
has relevance anymore. When you go to Mykonos
[Greece] and you hear Shakira, Maluma and Nicky
Jam ... crossover is everywhere.”
Rebeca León
Founder
LIONFISH ENTERTAINMENT
In little more than a year, León, 44, signed Rosalía,
one of Spain’s most promising crossover acts, and
helped transform the 26-year-old singer-songwrit-
er into a global star. “She’s incredible. I am very
proud of the team we have with Columbia Re-
cords, management, everybody,” says León, who
was senior vp Latin talent at AEG/Goldenvoice for
11 years before establishing her own management
company, representing Juanes and, until recent-
ly, J Balvin. “When we first launched [the single]
‘Malamente’ in May, Rosalía had 300,000 Spotify
listeners. Today, she’s at 15.5 million.”
DEFINING CROSSOVER “We are living in an era where
Latin is the new mainstream. There’s no more
crossover because Americans are now crossing
over to us.”
Andy Martinez
Vice chairman
JAK ENTERTAINMENT
Martinez, 42, along with Walter Kolm’s WK
Entertainment, masterminded the highly awaited
Wisin y Yandel comeback in 2018. The reggaeton
duo’s Como Antes Tour, its first in five years,
sold out eight shows at the Coliseo de Puerto
Rico in San Juan. Martinez manages Yandel and
co-founded Jak Entertainment with Jose and
Karla Torres. The boutique management firm
focuses on emerging artists and signed rising star
Guaynaa, whose “Rebota (Remix),” with Nicky
Jam, Farruko, Becky G and Sech, reached No. 28
on Hot Latin Songs in August.
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “How to create long-term
careers. All these new artists that we are working
with, we don’t want them to be one-hit wonders.
We want them to grow for many years.”
Alex Mizrahi
CEO
OCESA SEITRACK
Luana Pagani
PRESIDENT
SEITRACK U.S.
At Mexico’s entertainment powerhouse OCESA
Seitrack, Mizrahi, 47, scored a coup signing a
worldwide management deal with Mexican music
icon Alejandro Fernandez and an agreement with
Seroussi
Ducamp
Martinez
Acosta
Giaccardi
Mizrahi
Pagani
Sánchez
Pina
Carrion
León
Assad
Kolm
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